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[59] xliii. 33.
[60] xx. 1-17.
[61] Ethics, II. vi.
[62] lviii. 7.
[63] Ps. xv. 2.
[64] 1 Cor. ix. 16.
[66] i. 20.
[67] Ps. xlix. 13.
[68] Of the City of God, x. 5.
[69] Ibid., vi. 10.
[70] Ps. xciv. 3.
[71] i. 74-75.
[72] Thus Origen, Hom. XI, i. in Leviticum, where, however, he is not really giving an etymology.
[73] X., sub litt. S.
[74] xii. 14.
[75] Rom. viii. 38-39.
[76] De Affectibus.
[77] Of the Divine Names, xii.
[78] Of Virginity, viii.
I. Is Devotion a Special Kind of Act?
Cardinal Cajetan, On the Meaning of the Term "Devotion"
S. Augustine, Confessions, XIII. viii. 2
II. Is Devotion an Act of the Virtue of Religion?
III. Is Contemplation, that is Meditation, the Cause of Devotion?
Cardinal Cajetan, On the Causes of Devotion
On the Devotion of Women
IV. Is Joy an Effect of Devotion?
Cardinal Cajetan, On Melancholy
S. Augustine, Confessions, II. x.
It is by our acts that we merit. But devotion has a peculiarly meritorious character. Consequently devotion is a special kind of act.
Devotion is so termed from "devoting" oneself. Hence the "devout" are so named because they "devote" themselves to God and thus proclaim their complete subjection to Him. Thus, too, among the heathen of old those were termed "devout" who for the army's sake "devoted" themselves to their idols unto death, as Livy[Pg 52][79] tells us was the case with the two Decii. Hence devotion seems to mean nothing else than "the will to give oneself promptly to those things which pertain to God's service"; thus it is said in Exodus[80]: The multitude of the children of Israel ... offered first-fruits to the Lord with a most ready and devout mind. It is clear, however, that a wish to do readily what belongs to God's service is a special act. Hence devotion is a special act of the will.
But some argue that devotion is not a special kind of act, thus:
1. That which serves to qualify other acts cannot be itself a special act. But devotion appears to qualify certain other acts; thus it is said that all the multitude offered victims, and praises, and holocausts with a devout mind.[81]
But that which moves another gives a certain measure to the latter's movement. The will, however, moves the other faculties of the soul to their respective acts; and, moreover, the will, as aiming at an end in view, moves itself to the means towards that end. Consequently, since devotion is the act of a man who offers himself to serve Him Who is the Ultimate End, it follows that devotion gives a certain measure to human acts—whether they be the acts of the will itself with regard to the means to an end, or the acts of the other faculties as moved by the will.
2. Again, no act which finds a place in different kinds of acts can be itself a special kind of act.[Pg 53] But devotion is to be found in acts of different kinds, both in corporal acts, for example, and in spiritual; thus a man is said to meditate devoutly, for instance, or to genuflect devoutly.
But devotion does not find a place in different kinds of acts as though it were a species coming under different genera, but in the same sense as the motive power of a moving principle is virtually discoverable in the movements of the things it sets in motion.
3. Lastly, all special kinds of acts belong either to the appetitive or to the cognoscitive faculties. But devotion comes under neither of these—as will be evident to anyone who will reflect upon the various acts of these faculties respectively.
But devotion is an act of the appetitive powers of the soul, and is, as we have said above, a movement of the will.
Cajetan: With regard to the proper meaning of the term devotion, note that since devotion is clearly derived from devoting, and since to devote—derived in its turn from to vow—means to promise something spontaneously to God: it follows that the principle in all such promises is the will; and further, not the will simply as such, but the will so affected as to be prompt. Hence in Latin those are said to be devoted to some superior whose will is so affected towards him as to make them prompt in his regard. And this seems to refer especially to God and to those who in a sense stand in His place, as, for instance, our rulers, our fatherland, and our principles of action. Hence in the[Pg 54] Church's usage the term devotion is especially applied to those who are so affected towards God as to be prompt in His regard and in all that concerns Him. And so devotion is here taken to signify the act of a will so disposed, the act by which a man shows himself prompt in the Divine service.... Thus, then, devotion, the principal act of the virtue of religion, implies first of all the prompt desire of the Divine honour in our exercise of Divine worship; and hence comes the prompt choice of appropriate means to this end, and also the prompt carrying out of what we see to be suitable to that end. And the proof of possession of such devotion is that truly devout souls, the moment they perceive that some particular thing (or other) ought to be done for the service of God, are so promptly moved towards it that they rejoice in having to do or in actually doing it (on 2. 2. 82. 1).
